With football constantly evolving so do the laws of the beautiful game, and 2022 will be no different.
COVID continues to pose a threat to how match-going spectators watch their beloved teams with a number of requirements in order to enter stadiums.
It has also sparked a number of postponements up and down the football pyramid leading to one rule change in place as of the beginning of January.
Next November's World Cup has also forced a reshuffle of the traditional league season.
Often these changes become apparent ahead of the new season or are highlighted during a contentious moment - where an incident that would've been penalised the season before, go unnoticed.
The introduction of goal-line technology and VAR saw one integration more seamless than the other. For the current campaign, the failures of VAR led to a number of changes to not only its use but the manner in which decisions are made - including thicker lines for offside decisions.
Changes that will come into effect in 2022
No FA Cup replays
The FA recently took the decision to scrap replays for the FA Cup third and fourth rounds.
An announcement was made following a vast array of postponements in the Premier League and EFL due to the rising COVID cases in the country.
Premier League and Football League fixtures alike continue succumbing to outbreaks that have coincided with mounting injury problems at clubs that have resulted in postponements.
Early start to the Premier League season
With the World Cup being held in Qatar, FIFA took the decision to stage the tournament in the winter for the first time after concerns for player welfare playing in sweltering heat in the summer.
As a result, the Premier League will commence at an earlier date next season with proceedings kicking off on August 6.
The last league matches will be played over the weekend of November 12 and 13, before the break for the call-up period as the tournament gets underway on November 21 with the final being played on December 18.
Potential changes and rule extensions for the 2022-23 season
The return of five substitutes
As part of that October meeting, it was recommended that competitions should able to allow teams to have up to five substitutes per match going forward, and the measure could be introduced permanently.
The temporary rule was brought in back in May 2021 as a result of the pandemic and will remain in place until December 2022.
FAP-TAP though have recommended that the rule should be introduced permanently, and it is likely to be given the okay at IFAB’s annual general meeting in March.
Whether the change is implemented will be down to the individual leagues though – the Premier League reverted back to three substitutes after 10 clubs blocked the introduction, although most major European leagues and the Champions League all retained the five subs measure.
Pep Guardiola and former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have previously questioned the decision to scrap this after it was introduced during Project Restart in 2020.
European competitions like the Champions League and Europa League still use five substitutes.
Concussion substitutions
A trial period to test out concussion substitutions was set to continue until August 2022, but looks set to be extended.
The trial, which began back in January, has been hindered by a lack of incidents, and it has been recommended to extend it in order to gather more data on the impact made.
Incidents involving Aston Villa's John McGinn and West Ham defender Issa Diop lead to brain injury charity Headway questioning their handling of both isolated injuries.
Longer half-times?
During the meeting, CONMEBOL, the governing body for South America, requested that the half-time interval be increased from 15 minutes to 25 minutes.
Concerns were raised over the proposal though, in particular with regards to player welfare given the increased period of inactivity, and the request wasn't approved.
The idea is thought to be influenced by the NFL’s Super Bowl, which of course runs a half-time show with performances at the break.
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